Commercial shipping operations include movement of cargo using intermodal containers. A substantial amount of world cargo transport is completed using these intermodal containers. Intermodal transport typically happens as follows. A manufacturer stuffs a container with goods. This container is drayed on a ship to a marine terminal, such as Port Qasim Karachi, Pakistan. A steamship line, or carrier, transports the container on an ocean to another marine terminal, such as the Port of Oakland in California. The container is removed from the ship to a truck to dray the container to a rail ramp, such as BNSF'S Oakland International Gateway. The container is then transported by rail, for example to a distant rail ramp, such as the BNSF intermodal rail ramp in Willow Springs, Ill. From there the container is drayed to a consignee warehouse—say Wal-Mart where the goods are stripped.
Cargo security and transport efficiency are major concerns. Radio frequency identification devices (RFID) are used today to monitor a seal state of a container door. These devices are commonly referred to as electronic seals or eSeals. Knowing the seal state of a container door is important to predict that the cargo in the container may have been tampered with illicitly during transport.
Furthering the former example, after a container is stuffed with goods at a point of origin, the container doors are closed and an eSeal is installed on a door locking mechanism. The eSeal then begins to transmit a “sealed” status. This transmitted seal status can be read by an RFID reader and routed to an entity, such as a carrier, for monitoring the seal state of the container. Later when the seal is opened and thus the door can be opened the eSeal transmits an “opened” state to another reader. One problem is how to associate the eSeal with the particular container that it's sealing. Presently this is done manually by a process. For example when the eSeal is affixed and activated an operator will look at the container's identification markings—which are painted on various parts of the container, and read the eSeal identification number, either visually from the tags itself or by using an electronic reader. These two identities are then entered into a database that will be accessible by people who need to understand the location and seal status of the particular container. This manual process is problematic because using humans to do this process is time consuming and inaccurate. Moreover the seal state of the door of a particular container is important to know while in transit without human intervention in trans-shipment ports, such as in Singapore, where human intervention is not practical. Prior art eSeals alone won't work here because they don't include the container identity. Even though the database can have the association there is no positive confirmation that a container is at a location and its seal status is known.
What is needed is a solution that associates the container and the seal state of its door automatically at a point of origin, at certain way points when the container is in transit, and at points of destination without human intervention.